Léni Paquet-Morante (born 1962; born Temiscamingue, Quebec, Canada; active Hamilton, NJ), Vernal Pool, Shade, 2022. Acrylic on canvas; 91.4 × 91.4 cm, 94 × 94 cm (frame). Courtesy of the artist (AB-2025-23)
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Léni Paquet-Morante: Extract / Abstract, an exhibition of recent works by the Hamilton, New Jersey–based painter, will be on display at the Princeton University Art Museum's Art@Bainbridge gallery from July 19 to November 9, 2025. Through a combination of process-driven imagery, abstraction, and color, Paquet-Morante's work reconfigures familiar landscape elements to capture the elusiveness of memory and dreams. Curated by Michael Quituisaca, a graduate student in Princeton’s Department of Art & Archaeology, the exhibition will showcase works by the artist across acrylic painting, ink drawing, and monoprints.
Paquet-Morante’s collage-like landscapes take inspiration from her field work in shallow water systems including streams, tide pools, and storm drains. Highlighting the relationships among shape, line, and color, she extracts salient elements of a scene and reproduces them in ways that speak to her memory of and intuition about a landscape rather than its precise representation.
“Léni Paquet-Morante has a special ability to transform landscapes into eclectic and emotionally contemplative works of art,” said Quituisaca. “Extract / Abstract showcases the varied and distinct ways she interprets the world, from plein-air observational abstractions to synthetic abstractions that rearrange the objects in her field of vision. With this exhibition, we see Paquet- Morante reexamining notions of natural beauty as she creates new visual hierarchies.”
Léni Paquet-Morante (born 1962; born Temiscamingue, Quebec, Canada; active Hamilton, NJ), Constructed Shallow, 2022. Ink on paper; 61 × 45.7 cm, 71.1 × 55.9 cm (frame). Courtesy of the artist (AB-2025-45)
“Paquet-Morante’s oeuvre invites us to think deeply about the interconnectedness of nature, dreams, and memory,” notes James Steward, Nancy A. Nasher–David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director of the Princeton University Art Museum. “We are especially privileged to have this occasion to celebrate another artist from our region, and to partner with one of our brightest graduate students in presenting the artist’s unique vision.”
Extract / Abstract will span four rooms, beginning with Paquet-Morante’s large-scale painting Vernal Pool, Shade (2022), introducing visitors to her landscape practice and its emphasis on mark-making and line. The entrance area will also feature Wood over Pond Run (2020), a smaller painting that takes a sectional approach to abstraction, interpreting a sliver of a landscape in great detail and uncommon color.
Additional gallery spaces will display Paquet-Morante’s dreamlike, often kaleidoscopic paintings that rearrange traditional landscape scenes, including Winter Sky on a Shallow (2021), Forest Floor, Water (2020), and Pebbled Shallow (2022). Also on view will be Paquet-Morante’s works on paper, including the diptych Shallows in Yellow and Black (2023), which represents the artist’s sustained interest in water and its resonance with the fragmentation of memory.
Léni Paquet-Morante (born 1962; born Temiscamingue, Quebec, Canada; active Hamilton, NJ), Winter Sky on a Shallow, 2021. Ink and acrylic on canvas; 80 × 106.7 cm, 86.4 × 115.6 cm (frame). Courtesy of the artist (AB-2025-27)
Léni Paquet-Morante is based in Hamilton, NJ, and has studio space at Grounds for Sculpture. She was the recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Finalist Grant for Painting in 2024 and has been the subject of solo exhibitions throughout the region. Guest curator Michael Quituisaca is a graduate student in Princeton’s Department of Art & Archaeology who specializes in nineteenth- and twentieth-century North American art. He has previously co- curated Home-Land: Exploring the American Myth at the American University Museum.
Léni Paquet-Morante: Extract / Abstract is made possible by the Virginia and Bagley Wright, Class of 1946, Program Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art, the Kathleen C. Sherrerd Program Fund for American Art, and the Curtis W. McGraw Foundation.
With a collecting history that extends back to 1755, the Princeton University Art Museum is one of the leading university art museums in the country, featuring collections that have grown to include more than 117,000 works of art ranging from ancient to contemporary art and spanning the globe. Committed to advancing Princeton’s teaching and research missions, the Art Museum also serves as a gateway to the University for visitors from around the world.
The main Museum building is currently closed for the construction of a bold and welcoming new building opening October 31, 2025.
Art@Bainbridge, a gallery project at 158 Nassau Street, is open daily. Admission is free.
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